I do hope his time away has been spent acquiring the basics of MoD financial and project management.
He gave us his Defence Industrial and Technology Strategies but forgot the cardinal rule. Make sure you have top level buy-in and the wherewithal to implement - otherwise it's an aspiration, not policy.
Not that some of it needed implementing - I recall one part which discussed a technology MoD were going to invest in to see if it was viable, when it has been in service since 1997 and MoD already own the Intellectual Property Rights! Who writes this stuff?
Mind you, from what I've seen in DE&S, there's no-one left with the experience or knowledge to teach him. Especially in Land Systems.